Thursday, December 17, 2015

"Gold futures sink to lowest settlement since 2009"

Gold futures dropped on Thursday to log their lowest settlement since 2009, as the metal succumbed to a soaring dollar.

A rally in the greenback came on the heels of the first interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve in nearly 10 years, weighing on dollar-denominated metals.

Shortly after gold prices settled in regular trading in New York on Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee, led by Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, raised its fed-funds rate to a range of 0.25% to 0.5%, putting an end to a seven-year run of near-zero interest rates.

February gold GCF6, -2.42% sank $27.20, or 2.5%, to settle at $1,049.60 an ounce after touching a low of $1,046.80. Prices saw their lowest settlement level since October 2009, based on the most-active contracts. They settled 1.4% higher on Wednesday, ahead of the Fed decision....MORE

There's no chart support until the 2008-2009 congestion around that big fat round number: